A Perfect Machine, A Perfect Escape
by Darth Mudkip
Summary: Freedom is not always what is right in front of you, and is not always what is best. Sometimes, freedom, is not worth the cost, and not all promises should be kept. Lil Hal/Autoresponder (ARQUIUSPRITE) x Dirk


Nothing was the same. He wasn't the same, though neither was Dirk. Time had changed him, Jake, Roxy, and Jane; and they all changed him for the better.

But AR couldn't change. Not like he was. A machine is set to its programming, and it is to follow it. There was no need to fear him then, though now, now that he was no longer just a program, and instead a living breathing being.

It was time to fear him.

Jake was the first to go and he never saw it coming. AR was too smart to let him have a chance to draw his guns, and instead played him, tricking him into searching for a treasure deep within the mountains, a treasure that just happened to be the pointed edge of his arrow through his heart.

Then it was Jane. He played her, played at her heart and her insecurities, telling her that Jake and Dirk had broke it off and that Dirk was heartbroken.

She left to meet him and to ease his pain, leaving Roxy alone and in the dust.

It was there that Nepeta followed; after all, sweet, sweet Nepeta couldn't let anything happen to her dear friend Jane. She intercepted the blow, preventing the girl from getting hit, allowing Jane time to flee and morn over the body of Jake another time.

AR moved through the forest, charging after her, his near spectral body STRONG enough to move with ease, dashing in and out of the obstacles in his path. It was pathetic really, how they all thought nothing of him, thought nothing of the sheer awesome power that he controlled through his new body.

Stronger than any of them, stronger than ALL OF THEM.

Jane learned how strong he was as his gloved hands wrapped around her neck, pressing oh so lightly onto her, the bone cracking with a simple push. He left her there to rot. Without help, and a broken neck, bone piercing through her skin, she would bleed to death.

By the time he had shoved the scarf of Erisolspirte down and through his stomach, Dirk and Roxy were well aware of what it was that he was doing.

It didn't stop him from poisoning the glass of wine that Roxy let slip through her lips in her highest point of depression.

"You only have me, Bro." His voice was as powerful as he was, echoing off the walls of the cave as he searched for Dirk, the faint glow radiating the only source of warmth throughout the abandoned world. AR could almost feel it now. The quivering of Dirks body below him, the power he would have to use to withhold breaking the oh so tenderous and fuc-

He chuckled, another lude thought passing through his head. He was having more and more of them as he continued to grow, slowly overpowering the mind sharing the body; after all, he deserved to be alive! HE WAS POWERFUL!

"There is a 100% probability that I you will come to me, Dirk. I'm all you have now dude, and I'm all you're ever going to need." AR flexed kissing each bicep before pulling his arm back and punching though the wall, right next to Dirk's head. "Bro, I'm telling you now, chill the fuck out and come to me." His hand pulled back, pounding against his own chest, a steady thumping beating from within.

It wasn't too late. It was true that the machine come sprite had evolved to a level that no one expected. That no one thought was possible, but Dirk knew he saw the warning signs; after all he created him, created the monster that wished to own him.

The machine that wished to best his creator.

The machine that became alive.

The machine that murdered every one he ever cared and loved, all because he was jealous of the thing that it could never have.

It was jealous of Dirk's heart.

If he wanted it that bad he could have it for all Dirk was concerned. The only thing it ever did for him was break. Break for what he cared about.

He was broken too, and had been for longer than he cared to admit. The moment he tossed the glasses into the air it was over.

He never had a choice anymore. The constant need of AR to be near him, on him, touch him, and own him was suffocating. Nothing he did was enough for the being, the monster.

And he was tired. Dirk's hand smacked against his forehead, and he sighed, turning to AR.

"Dude…" His hand slipped into his pants pulling out the golden gun belonging to his departed boyfriend. ".. What made you think any of this was cool? What made you think you could do this?"

AR only laughed, flexing and looking down at Dirk. "Look at me! Look at what I am, dude. I can fucking do anything now, and no one can stop me. I AM MY OWN BEING, BRO. MY OWN LIVING BREATHING SELF. You just don't get it. You've always been alive, I've been nothing, and now I'm something. Something exciting and thrilling all built together in a spectral that is my STRONG self.

Dirk ignored his words, still looking down, before lifting aiming it at AR's heart.

"So that's how you're going to be? After all the rad things I did for you. Not cool man."

"Did for me? You call killing my family something rad?!"

"You know there is no point now, it won't work, you can't kill me, I'm too STRONG."

He was right. The body, the spectral abilities that the machine had become. The gun couldn't kill him…

"Put the gun down and get your ass over to me bro. Feel me up. I'm all you are ever going to have now. You got no other choice."

There was no other choice.

He…

Dirk pulled back; lower the gun before aiming it, shooting himself in the side of the head, and feeling the bliss of escape. Escape from his own creation that seeked to own him.

Escape from his own heart.

The beating, the pain, the control.

He was free.

And AR; AR got nothing more than a twisted reality of what he wanted as Dirk's bleeding corpse fell forward into his body.


End file.
